Thought I was smart using toothpaste to clean my phone screen, now it's all streaky. How do I get it back to normal?

3 comments

3 Comments

We keep grabbing these quick fixes without asking why they even work. Toothpaste for scratches, baking soda for everything, it all skips the real details of what we're cleaning. Then we're left with a bigger mess to figure out.

riley_kim561mo ago

Remember when people used to say toothpaste could fix scratched CDs? I tried that once on a favorite album, and it made the skipping worse. The paste filled in the grooves but left a haze that messed with the laser. I spent an hour polishing it with a soft cloth and some screen cleaner meant for glasses. It never played right again, which taught me to test things on something less important first. Your phone screen might need a proper cleaning solution after that toothpaste film.

diana_mitchell441mo ago

Oh, I remember those toothpaste fixes too. But you know, CDs don't actually have grooves like vinyl records. The data is stored in a different way, and toothpaste is harsh and can haze the plastic layer that the laser reads. That's probably why it never played right again. Your point about testing first is always a good rule.